Hell and Back (Legacies Episode)
This story is a part of the Dragon Ball: Legacies collection. It is written by user Princeofallsalads Characters Bardock Tora Shugesh Overview It focuses on Bardock, how and why he formed Bardock's Elite, and the origin of his scar. Story Bardock awoke. His Attack Pod was shaking violently; he was entering the atmosphere. Alongside him was Tora, also in an Attack Pod. They had been partners since childhood. With a tremendous impact, the Attack Pod landed. The Pod automatically determined the stability of the planet's atmosphere, as well as potentially harmful chemicals in the air. Everything checked out, so Bardock exited the pod, and Tora did so as well. "See anything?" Tora said, checking his scouter. Bardock shook his head. "Nothing." "Scouter's not picking anything up either," Tora said, "So why the hell was this planet on the roster?" Bardock examined his crater. There were several strange holes along the sides, that seemed to continue for a considerable distance. "Tora, take a look at this," Bardock said. Tora dropped down next to him. Bardock extended his palm towards the hole, then fired an energy blast. It tore through the tunnel, and fired up a hole on the ground not ten yards away. Bardock examined one of the tunnels with his scouter. Tora said, "That's weird.. I'm picking up billions of minuscule power levels beneath the ground..." "Didn't a pair of Saiyans already die on this planet?" Bardock asked. "Yes, but, I don't see how. Whatever lives underground couldn't do it," Tora responded. In one of the holes on the surface, several worm-like creatures arose. They were about a yard in length, but only about two centimeters wide. They had barbs on both ends. Bardock stepped on one of the worms. Blue blood sprayed beneath his foot. The others, sensing danger, retreated underground. Bardock picked up the dead worm and took a bite. He instantly spat it out. "Mostly blood," he said to Tora. Tora's scouter lit up. "I'm detecting a power level in the hundreds, beneath us." "More worms?" Bardock asked. Out of the holes came cluster of warms, attached together by the bards on their heads. As they watched, these clusters formed together, becoming a monumental creature. Bardock activated his scouter. It had a power level of 1500. Tora cracked his knuckles. "1500? I see how some Saiyans may have died here. May I?" Bardock nodded. Tora leaped forward. He sunk his fist into the worms, and he easily penetrated their soft hide. His arm plunged into the worm, up to his shoulder. Blue blood seeped out of the wound, but they worms seemed to be sealing the wound by re-attaching to each other. They trapped Tora's arm inside. Tora tried to pull away, but it was fruitless. He fired an energy blast from his hand, and it fired through the behemoth's back, but caused no harm. Blue blood sprayed everywhere. Tora created an energy ball with his free hand, and threw it at the creature. It entered the collection of warms, and Tora detonated it. The worms were blasted apart. Amongst the flailing worms that fell from the sky, there was a near-complete skeleton. Tora, who had injured his arm with his own blast, was preoccupied, but Bardock took a closer look. It was definitely a Saiyan; Bardock could tell by the groove for a tail. "Tora! I found one of the dead Saiyans. It looks like the bones have been picked clean," Bardock said. Tora looked over. "One of two," he noted. Bardocks spire lit up. "What?! Five-figure power levels, here?" Tora looked too. "11,000? This can't be true!" "Well, we should be able to handle it. We just need to separate the worms. Also, it's a full moon tonight," Bardock said. Tora, who had a power level of a little over 2000, didn't seem reassured. Several behemoths burst onto the surface. Bardock readied himself for the fight. "Let's go," he said. He surrounded himself with energy and burst through the core of one of the giants. He turned to see a gaping hole in its chest, and he fired repeated energy blasts, blasting the worms apart. He then fired multiple beams, vaporizing the small clusters of worms. Tora, more of a melee fighter, slashed their limbs off with his arms, then vaporized the appendage with a blast. Bardock focused his attention of the many weaker constructs, and destroyed them one blast at a time. Suddenly, a behemoth burst from the soil, significantly larger than its brethren. It was the whopping 11,000. Bardock was looking forward to the fight. Tora, trying to avoid losing face in front of Bardock, took the initiative and attacked first. He rushed forward, ready to strike. He sunk his fist into the titan's chest, then fired a blast. It created a depression in the thing's chest, and blue blood exploded over Tora. He tried to punch again, but there wasn't much force in his attack. The blood was sapping his energy! His fist made contact, and he was stuck in the creature up to the elbow. The worms started shifting. Tora couldn't find the energy to blast again. The shifting worms began pulling him in. "Tora!" Bardock shouted, rushing forward. It was too late. Within seconds, Tora had been engulfed by the worms. Bardock prepared a blast, but he couldn't bring himself to harm his longtime partner and friend. He flew to the creature and began ripping worms off the surface, trying to find his comrade. In frustration, he punched the creature with all his force, and found himself being pulled in. In a matter of seconds, he, like Tora, had been engulfed. Inside the monster, he found Tora. The worms were shifting around his partner. With horror, Bardock saw them trying to enter Tora's wide agape mouth. Bardock, who hadn't been sapped of energy, began ripping the worms away, preventing them from penetrating his friend. The behemoth split into smaller clusters of worms. The smaller segments went underground, bringing the Saiyans with them. Bardock and Tora were rushed through a labyrinth of tunnels and dumped into a large antechamber. The antechamber originally appeared to be packed with worms, but under closer inspection, Bardock realized it was one creature with millions of worm-like appendages. The worms were separate creatures. The appendages began wrapping themselves around Bardock's hands and legs, but he fought them off. Tora was already suspended in midair by the appendages. Next to him was another Saiyan that Bardock didn't know. He was suspended by appendages, but they were also go into him via his mouth, nose, and ears. His eyes were blank, he almost seemed dead, but his chest rose and fell gently as if he were asleep. The appendages got a firm hold on Bardock as he watched the arms enter Tora as well. When they tried to enter Bardock, he wrenched one arm free and started fighting them back. Suddenly, the mass of appendages beneath them shifted, and one large tentacle came forward, about the length and width of a tree trunk, and on the tip was a large, bulbous eye. Several barbed arms of the creature tried to enter Bardock's mouth. He shut his mouth as tight as he could. One appendage entered through his ear. As soon as it entered, he heard a high-pitched, singsong voice that said, "Why do you resist? We are the ultimate being." "You come to our world and kill us. You cannot defeat us. Your kin have tried before, and you have seen the results!" Images flashed through Bardock's mind of a bloody battle. Two Saiyans facing off countless behemoths. They blasted through the first few, but then the monstrous combination that subdued Bardock and Tora arose, and they were overwhelmed. They were taken into this same chamber. One was fed to the hive. The other still remains. Suddenly, memories of Bardock's childhood began flitting through his mind. The creature was examining his memories. "I have seen what you fear, Bardock the Saiyan. You know that your death would mean nothing. Other Saiyans wouldn't even look for you. You're low class trash," the creature said, and continued, "Even though you are stronger than some, you are nothing to them. You are just another face, not deserving the attention of your superiors, even if you deserve it." Those were the thoughts that had plagued Bardock's mind since his childhood. He had shown exceptional abilities, beyond many of the upper class children. With extreme force of will, he wrenched one arm free. He reached to pull the tentacle from his ear, but the voice spoke, "It is barbed onto your brain. You cannot remove it without causing permanent damage." Bardock fired an energy beam at the appendage, slicing it apart. One end hung limply in his ear, and the other fell into the mass writhing below. Bardock ripped the others off his arms and legs. He prepared to fire a blast at the creature, but it retreated beneath its many limbs. Bardock levitated slightly above the 'ground', and began firing energy blasts haphazardly into the mass, frying many tentacles. However, for everyone cluster he fried, more took their place. He found himself fighting as hard as he could to not get captured again. The giant eye revealed itself again. Bardock fired a blast at it, but it whipped out of the way. The blast hit the ceiling and penetrated to the outside. The sun had recently set, and the full moon was high. Bardock felt the change coming over him, and it came also over his comrades. They appendages holding them down snapped, and the ones inside them withdrew. Three uncontrollable Great Apes burst from the soil. Bardock fired a mouth beam at his feet, killing the hive leader. The worms, functioning as a hive mind, went on a berserk frenzy, forming into behemoths the size of the Great Apes, but they were no match, being easily incinerated by a single mouth blast. *** Bardock awoke. He was lying on a mound of soft dirt in the middle of what seemed to be a sea. But, as Bardock sat up, he saw that what at first glance appeared to be water as about an inch of blue worm blood. Dead biomass floated amongst the blood, but they could hardly be recognized as worms. Bardock rose into the sky. The blood didn't go far past the mound where he slept, but there were additional patches as far as the eye can see, filling the pits on the planet's cratered surface. Bardock's first thought was about Tora. He had lost his scouter either during the fighting or transformation. He landed back on the mound. He sat there for almost ten minutes, until he heard a voice in the distance: "Bardock!" He turned to see Tora and the other Saiyan flying towards him. He raised his arms in greeting. He first wondered how they found him, but he then saw the other Saiyan had a scouter. They landed on the mound, and Tora started spitting. "I can't get that awful taste out of my mouth," he said. The other said, "I kind of took a liking to it after a while," he then noticed Bardock, dropped to one knee, and said, "I owe you a debt of gratitude! Who knows how long I could of been down there?" "How long were you down there?" Bardock inquired. "Uh... about two weeks I'd wager. Those worms in your mouth spit a thin liquid into your stomach to keep you going, but only barely. I'm starving!" he said. "So, you are a low class fighter?" Bardock asked. "Yes, but I don't think it makes much difference. If we can fight, we can fight. My name is Shugesh. Yours?" Shugesh said. "Bardock, and this is Tora," he replied. Trivia *The idea of the worms joining together was taken from the idea of Lekgolo forming together into Mgalekgolo (better known as Hunters) from the Halo franchise. Category:Fan Fiction Category:Dragon Ball Legacies